


Changing Seasons

by AmazingViola



Series: Of Unlikely Friendships and New Beginnings [2]
Category: Marvel Cinematic Universe, Spider-Man (Tom Holland Movies), Spider-Man - All Media Types, The Avengers (Marvel Movies)
Genre: Constellations, Endgame? What Endgame?, Father-Son Relationship, Fluff, Irondad, Orphan - Freeform, Snow, Stars, Thanksgiving, Tony Stark Acting as Peter Parker's Parental Figure, Tony Stark Has A Heart
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-08-18
Updated: 2020-08-28
Packaged: 2021-03-06 04:07:23
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 3
Words: 4,176
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/25977202
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/AmazingViola/pseuds/AmazingViola
Summary: As Rhodey watched the kids interact with Tony — Peter in his loud, excited puppy way, Natsuko with small smiles and quiet giggles —, he felt sure, for the first time since Siberia, that Tony was going to be okay. When he looked at Tony with Peter and Natsuko, Rhodey no longer was a man mourning the loss of his friends, his family, but instead he saw a man who had found his place in the world, his purpose in life.~Or snippets in time as Peter, Tony, and Natsuko slowly grow to be a family.
Relationships: Peter Parker & James "Rhodey" Rhodes, Peter Parker & Original Female Character, Peter Parker & Tony Stark
Series: Of Unlikely Friendships and New Beginnings [2]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1856404
Kudos: 18





	1. Thanksgiving

**Author's Note:**

> This is a continuation of “The Blurry Line Between Friendship and Family”, so it’ll probably make more sense if you read that first. Enjoy!

Rhodey let out a sigh, leaning back in his seat as Tony drove them through the city. It had been a long couple of months; between the negotiations with the United Nations Security Council and with Secretary Ross and the Congressional Committee on Enhanced Individuals, Rhody didn’t think he’d had more than 10 consecutive hours to himself in the last three months. To say he was exhausted would be the understatement of the century. After much discussion, Congress had agreed to let the negotiations cease for the week of Thanksgiving, which was how Rhodey found himself sitting in Tony’s car the Tuesday before Thanksgiving, on their way to pick up Peter before they headed out to the compound for the weekend. 

“Oh,” Tony started as he pulled up in front of Midtown. “I forgot to mention, one of Peter’s friends is coming up with us.”

“Which one?” Rhodey asked. He had met both Ned and MJ a couple of times and found himself quite fond of both of them.

“You haven’t met her.” 

Rhodey perked up in interest; Peter making new friends was not unheard of, but not exactly a common occurrence either. 

“Her name is Natsuko.” Tony continued, shifting a little in his seat to get a better view of Midtown’s doors as students started streaming out. “Actually, I should probably warn you.”

Rhodey quirked an eyebrow. Peter didn’t seem the type to become friends with a troublemaker.

“Oh it’s nothing bad.” Tony was quick to add, seeing Rhodey’s expression. “She’s just really shy. Like, won’t talk to you or even really look at you shy. You’re not doing anything wrong, it’s just going to take her a while to get used to you.”

Before Rhodey could respond, the trunk of the car opened, and his attention was diverted to a very excited Peter. 

“Hi Uncle Rhodey! How are you? It’s so good to see you again, I feel like it’s been so long!”

Rhodey couldn't keep the smile off his face as Peter continued rambling. He always marveled at the fact that someone who saw so much of the cruelty of the world could still look on it with such excitement. Yet somehow Peter did, almost as if he were personally trying to make up for all of the dark in the world by showering everyone he met with love and kindness and light. 

Rhodey was pulled out of his thoughts as another figure stepped up to the car next to Peter.  _ This must be Natsuko _ , Rhodey thought as he looked at the girl. As Rhodey looked at her, he was struck by multiple things about her. First and foremost what stood out to him was just how small this kid was. She clearly went to Midtown with Peter, so Rhodey knew that she must be at least an eighth grader, but looking at her, he found it hard to believe. Had he seen her out of context, he would have sooner pegged her as a fifth grader. 

The next thing Rhodey noticed was how Peter interacted with her; the way he, without even thinking about it, reached down to help her put her bag and what looked like a violin case into the trunk; the way that Peter put his arm around her reassuringly when she, upon seeing Rhodey, looked down shyly and shifter closer to him. It was clear that they were quite close. 

Having finished putting their bags in the trunk, Peter and Natsuko climbed into the back seat of the car. Once they were settled — Rhodey noticed that Peter was sitting in the middle seat right next to Natsuko and had again wrapped his arm around her shoulders — Rhodey turned around and smiled at Natusko. 

“Hi, I’m Rhodey. You must be Natsuko. It’s nice to meet you.”

She curled a little closer to Peter under Rhodey’s gaze but also gave him a little smile, which he regarded as a win. 

After checking that both of them had their seat belts on, Tony smoothly pulled the car out of the parking lane and into New York City traffic. “Do you guys both have everything you need?” He asked, letting out a small noise of annoyance as a cab cut him off. “Pete, I grabbed the bag you packed from the tower, so you should be all set. Natusko, do you need to stop by your apartment before we head out?”

Natsuko shook her head. 

“Wonderful.” Tony smiled over a Rhodey. “You ready to have the Thanksgiving of a lifetime, Honey Bear?”

“You know I am.” Rhodey responded, rolling his eyes. 

  
~

All things considered, the ride upstate was a relatively quiet one. Once they were out of the city, Tony fiddled with the radio for a while before setting it to WQXR, the New York classical music station. Rhodey was a little surprised by his choice — he had never pegged Tony as a classical kind of guy, but hey, who was he to judge? He and Tony sat in the front in a comfortable silence as the two kids conversed quietly in the back. Once Rhodey got bored of watching the scenery fly by outside the car window, he turned his attention to the two teens behind him. 

They had been pretty quiet for the first part of the ride, Natsuko reading a book she had brought with her, Peter messing around on his phone. Rhodey had been surprised to see, when he looked closer at the book that Natusko was reading, that it was in what looked like Japanese.

After about an hour, Peter had gotten bored of playing games on his phone and instead started bothering Natsuko to talk with him. Watching them interact was quite interesting; Peter who used so many words, Natusko who used so few. Despite the glaring differences in their communication styles, somehow the two seemed to fit together perfectly. 

Rhodey had some trouble following their conversation as he didn’t know Natsuko well enough to always know what she was trying to say with her body language, but from what he could gather, their conversations ranged everywhere from Physics that afternoon to SOMETHING. Natsuko had definitely grown more relaxed as the car ride went on, but Rhodey still noticed that she had yet to say a word and how she would send him cautious glances every few minutes. 

Rhodey was pulled out of his thoughts as the car turned a corner and the compound came into view in front of them. No matter how much time he spent there, it was always a magnificent sight. Peter wasted no time, and as soon as the car had rolled to a stop, he was pulling Natsuko out to grab their bags and go look around the compound. 

Tony scoffed and shook his head at their antics, but as Rhodey glanced over at him, he couldn’t help but notice that Tony looked happier and more relaxed than he had in a long time. At first Rhodey had been worried when Tony had mentioned that they were going up to the compound for Thanksgiving — since Steve and the others had left, the compound felt glaringly empty whenever they were there —, but as Rhodey watched Peter excitedly show Natsuko around, he knew that the compound feeling empty was not going to be a problem. 

  
~

Rhodey walked into the common room the next morning — after the best night of sleep he’d had in months — to Peter and Natsuko sitting at the table surrounded by at least seven pieces of paper, two laptops, and a StarkPad. Peter appeared to be planning something out on a blank piece of paper, while Natsuko was browsing on one of the laptops. Neither of them seemed to have noticed Rhodey standing in the doorway. 

“We definitely need to have cranberry sauce. I mean, there’s like no question.” Peter mumbled offhandedly as he wrote on the piece of paper in front of him. “We had this tradition with the cranberry sauce where every year May would…” He trailed off after that, looking suddenly slightly sick. Natsuko gave him a small smile and put her hand over his comfortingly. 

“Right.” Peter shook his head, as if to clear his head. 

The two faded back into silence, and Rhodey was about to move from where he was standing when Natsuko poked Peter’s arm and tilted her head at him as she pointed at something on the page.

“Hmm?” He asked, looking over at her. “Oh.” he looked where her finger was pointing. “FRIDAY, what’s cranberry in Japanese?” 

FRIDAY responded in Japanese, but Natsuko still looked confused. 

“Uh,” Peter thought for a second, “FRIDAY, can you pull up a picture of a cranberry? Or, like, multiple cranberries, I don’t know…”

“Of course, Mr. Parker.” Came FRIDAY’s smooth voice from the ceiling as a hologram appeared in front of Peter and Natsuko with a picture of a bowl of cranberries on it. 

Natsuko still looked pretty confused, so Peter reassured her, “It’s fine. You’ll see what it is tomorrow.” 

Rhodey’s brow furrowed in confusion at that entire interaction, but he let it go with a shake of his head, deciding to ask Tony about it later. He was, a second time, about to move from where he was standing in the doorway and go into the kitchen to get his coffee when he heard the sound of footsteps to the left of him. 

Glancing over to see Tony walking towards him down the hallway he opened his mouth — whether to explain  _ why _ he was standing in the doorway like a stalker or to ask what the hell just happened, he wasn’t sure — but he was cut off by Tony shaking his head and gesturing for Rhodey to follow him. 

The two quietly made their way away from the kitchen over to one of the interior courtyards. It was a clear day and the sun was shining through trees, giving the entire clearing a yellowish orange glow. Tony stood for a second, just soaking in the sun, before sitting down on one of the benches, patting the space next to him to invite Rhodey to join him. 

There was another moment of silence before Tony let out a sigh. “I’m guessing you have a couple questions.”

“ A couple?” Rhodey turned to look at him incredulously. “Since when do you have a second kid? And how the hell does she not know what a cranberry is?”

“First of all, she’s not my kid. And sec—”

“Hang on, hold up there a second.” Rhodey cut Tony off. “Not your kid? She literally fell asleep on you last night. And you were fine with it. You! Fine with someone literally sleeping on you!” He shook his head in disbelief. “Not your kid my ass.”

Tony scoffed in response, but Rhodey noticed with satisfaction that he didn’t try to deny what Rhodey had said. 

“Anywho,” Tony continued, “as to why Natsuko doesn’t know what cranberries are, that’s kind of why we’re here.” Tony floundered for a second before taking a deep breath and going on. “This Thanksgiving is going to be … rough.”

Rhodey frowned at him in confusion. “What do you mean?” 

“Well, it—” Tony broke off and started again “For starters, it’s Peter’s first Thanksgiving without May.”

Rhodey felt his shoulders sag in sympathy. “That’s gotta be rough.”

“You have no idea.” Tony responded, shaking his head. “As for Natsuko, it's her first Thanksgiving, well, ever.”

“What?” Rhodey turned sharply to look at Tony. 

“Natsuko moved to the US about 6 months ago.”

Rhodey nodded in understanding. “That makes sense. This should be fun then, right? We get to show her her first Thanksgiving.”

“Well… It’s a little more complicated than that.” Tony let out a short sigh and looked back out over the courtyard. “Natsuko’s an orphan as well. We don’t know the whole story, but by the look of it, even when her dad was alive he wasn’t exactly the most kind person. So, we’re not really sure how this whole holiday centered on family and stuff is going to go over, if you know what I mean.”

“Man.” Rhodey shook his head. “That sucks.”

“It’s fine. I just wanted to let you know why this might not exactly be a traditional Thanksgiving.” Tony leaned back on the bench and looked over a Rhodey smirking. “Don’t get all down in the dumps on me there Platypus, this is still going to be the greatest Thanksgiving you’ve ever had the misfortune to experience.” 

Rhodey recognized the deflection for what it was but decided that it wasn’t worth it to push Tony any further; he had clearly reached his emotional quota for the morning. 

“Whatever you say, Tones.” Rhodey scoffed, slapping him on the shoulder as he stood up from the bench, and, ignoring the way Tony’s eyes darkened a little at the hiss of Rhodey’s leg braces, made his way inside. 

~

The rest of the weekend flew by in a blur of motion and before he knew it, Sunday had arrived and they were all sitting in the car on their way back to New York City. Rhodey was sure that in those four days he had smiled more than he had in the last five months combined. There had been a couple of little slip ups — the most embarrassing of which involved Rhodey asking if Peter and Natsuko if they were dating, which resulted in Tony bursting out laughing and Peter saying “Oh my God, no!” so emphatically that he fell out of his chair — but overall the weekend had gone quite smoothly. 

As Rhodey watched the kids interact with Tony, Peter in his loud, excited puppy way, Natsuko with small smiles and quiet giggles, Rhodey felt sure, for the first time since Siberia, that Tony was going to be okay. When he looked at Tony with Peter and Natsuko, Rhodey no longer saw a man mourning the loss of his friends, of his family, but instead he saw a man who had found his place in the world, his purpose in life.


	2. An Unexpected First

“Peter.”

Peter pushed himself up from where he had been lying down on the couch. By the light filtering through the windows he guessed that it was about seven or eight in the morning. He and Natsuko had been having a Star Wars marathon — Peter had found out a few days earlier that Natsuko had never seen any of the Star Wars movies and felt the need to remedy that  _ immediately _ —, and it seemed they had fallen asleep. Observing the blanket draped across his legs and the fact that the TV had been turned off, Peter concluded that Tony must have come in after they had fallen asleep. He was sure that he would be getting a lecture later about how he was supposed to be setting a good example for Natsuko, not corrupting her, but he couldn’t really find it in himself to care.

“Peter.” Natsuko said, slightly more urgently this time, reminding Peter why he had woken in the first place. He looked up at her in surprise. They had come a long way since the beginning of the school year, but it was still uncommon for Natsuko to initiate verbal interaction. 

“What’s up?” Peter responded, shifting his position to face where she was sitting on the couch next to him. Instead of responding, Natsuko continued to stare fixedly out the windows across from the couch. Following her gaze, Peter saw that it was snowing pretty heavily, the large flakes lazily falling past the windows. It looked like it had already been snowing for a while, and all of the buildings around the tower were shrouded in a white layer of snow. 

Peter frowned as he looked back at Natsuko, who was still staring out the window, frozen in place. “Natsuko, have you…” he paused for a second “… have you never seen snow before?” She shook her head minutely, still not moving. 

It made sense on some level, afterall he knew that she had only come to the US that summer, but he had never really thought about the difference in climate between Japan and the US in that much detail. He was sure that he had seen pictures of snow in some parts of Japan, but apparently there were parts of the island where it didn’t snow. As he thought about it, he realized he wasn’t even completely sure where Natsuko was from; her childhood was still a sensitive topic, and it never quite felt like the right time to bring it up. 

“Do you want to go out and see it?”

Her head snapped around to face him. She tilted her head to the side slightly.  _ Are you sure?  _

Peter gave her an encouraging smile and started untangling his legs from the blankets wrapped around them. Natsuko stood up too, grabbing the old woven blanket that was laying across her legs and wrapping it around her shoulders. Peter felt a wave of fondness wash through him at how adorable she looked bundled up in the blanket, but also at the fact that he knew that the blanket had not been in the room when they had started their Star Wars marathon, which means that Tony must have gone especially out of his way to get it from Natsuko’s room for her. 

Carefully wrapping his arm around Natsuko’s shoulder, Peter led her over to the elevator, but not before stopping at each of their respective rooms to grab their shoes. He was pretty sure that Tony would have an aneurysm if Peter took Natsuko out into the snow in nothing but her socks.

“Good morning Mr. Parker, Ms. Tanaka. Where would you like to go this morning?”

“G’morning, F.R.I.D.A.Y., can you take us to the roof please?” 

“Of course, Mr. Parker.”

The elevator started smoothly gliding upwards. Peter felt Natsuko shift a little under his arm in discomfort at the movement but made no move to remove herself from where she was tucked into his side. In a few short seconds, the elevator glided to a stop again and the doors opened. 

It was like stepping into another world. The small courtyard shimmered under the steadily falling snow, the dark color of the tree trunks standing out sharply against the white snow. Even the city was calm, the snow shrouding it like a blanket, dampening its usual bustling energy to an eerie silence. Peter looked down at Natsuko, waiting for her to step out of the elevator. He smiled gently down at her as she reached out to grab his shirt, closing her hand into a fist around it, before stepping out.

The two walked out of the elevator together, and as Peter watched Natsuko’s expression of wonder as she turned in a circle, her arms thrown out, the snowflakes swirling around her, he was filled by a single thought:  _ this is home. _

~

(And if Tony wondered why Peter and Natsuko were both soaking wet at breakfast, he didn’t say anything.)


	3. Stars

Peter couldn’t sleep. This wasn’t an uncommon occurrence, with the stress of school and his … extracurricular activities, Peter was more and more frequently finding himself lying awake, unable to sleep. It was on one of these nights, after startling awake from a nightmare — the walls were caving in on him, pushing on his body, his chest, crushing him until he couldn’t move or think or breathe — that Peter decided to get some fresh air. They had a few days off of school, so Tony thought it might be nice to get out of the city and spend the long weekend upstate. That was how Peter found himself lying on the roof of the compound at three in the morning, watching the stars. 

The stars were one of Peter’s favorite things about the Compound. Sure, the Tower was home in a way that the compound would never be, but where at the Tower most of the stars were lost to the ambient light from the city, bustling along around it day and night, out here at the Compound, they were far enough from the city that you could see all of the stars. They filled the sky, like thousands of tiny lanterns, spanning in every direction, as far as the eye could see. 

Peter didn’t know how long he lay there, staring up at the stars, before he was pulled out of his thoughts by the sound of the door behind him opening. It took him only a second to identify the person walking towards him. Their steps were so quiet that even with his enhanced hearing, he could barely hear them; only Natsuko could walk like that. His conclusion was proven correct as Natsuko padded over to him, curling gently into his side. 

Looking down at her, he felt a smile tug at his lips. “Shouldn’t you be sleeping?” He asked, shifting so that he could see her face better. Even in the dark, he could see her look at him with a clearly unimpressed expression. Hypocrite, her eyes seemed to say. Sometimes, it amazed Peter how easily he could read Natsuko’s expressions. All things considered, they hadn’t known each other that long — only since the beginning of the school year — but somehow Peter always knew just what she was trying to say. As such, he let out a short huff of laughter at the pure incredulity of her expression. 

“Okay. Maybe I deserved that.”

Uh huh, her raised eyebrows and the slight tilt of her head seemed to say.

“It’s just one of those nights” Peter said, looking back up at the stars. 

Silently, Natsuko tucked herself under his arm and lay back, looking up at the stars as well. Glancing over at her — the way her thin black hair splayed out around her on the roof like a halo, the way that the stars sparkled in her eyes — Peter felt a wave of fondness rush through him. He wasn’t sure what he did to deserve such an amazing friend, such an amazing sister, but he did know that he would do anything to make sure that she was safe and happy. 

Peter’s eyes began to drift closed, only to jerked back open again by the feeling of the walls closing in on him, of being stuck, of not being able to protect those that he loved. It was better now that Natsuko was there, but Peter still couldn’t quite shake away the last remnants of his nightmare. As if sensing his unrest, he felt Natsuko shift slightly to look up at his face. He was about to turn to face her, when she took a careful breath, the way that she always did before she started to speak. 

Speaking was a complicated thing for Natsuko. It was not that she couldn’t speak, far from it; when she spoke her words were quiet but clear and well thought out, despite her relative discomfort with the language — she really only started learning English a year ago. She would occasionally make grammar mistakes and had quite a strong accent, but when she chose to speak, she never struggled to convey her meaning. 

So, it wasn’t that she was unable to speak, it was just that she didn’t. She had gotten better about it in the last few months as she got more and more comfortable around Peter, Tony, and Pepper and with the tower in general — she had started speaking in longer sentences and participating in conversations — but it still was rather uncommon for her to start speaking without being prompted. 

Not wanting to put her under more pressure, Peter carefully kept looking forward and waited for her to start speaking in her own time.

“My brother used to tell me stories on the stars. When I could not sleep.”

Peter barely managed to hide his intake of breath. Natsuko rarely talked about her life before she came to the US, and she never talked about her family. Peter knew from her file that her older brother had died in a car crash with her mother when she was seven years old, she had never explicitly mentioned him before. 

Peter was torn; he didn’t want to scare her off by being too eager or making it seem like a big deal, but he also wanted to show that he was listening. He decided on shifting himself to be facing her, but not saying anything. 

There was a second of silence before she continued. “Almost all cultures has stories about the stars. He would tell me stories from the stars from all over the world. Because, even of different countries, they are always same stars.” There was another short pause before. “Do you want me to tell you some of the stories he told me?”

Peter nodded, turning back to look at the stars as Natsuko started to speak, hesitantly at first then with more confidence.

So they lay there under the stars, Natsuko’s soft voice spinning stories of heroes and battles and quests. 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thanks for reading! Have a nice weekend :)

**Author's Note:**

> Thanks for reading!


End file.
